THE owner of Frodsham’s Amore bar and restaurant has dismissed rumours of a takeover by national pub chain JD Wetherspoon as ‘complete fantasy’.
A Wetherspoon’s spokesman confirmed this week the company is keen to open a pub in Frodsham, but will not talk about individual sites.
However, Amore owner David McGrogan stressed he would be reopening this weekend, and said: “I have no intention of selling to them [Wetherspoon’s] or anyone else.”
Townsfolk feared Amore would be taken over by Wetherspoon’s when the bar and upstairs restaurant, and the adjoining Mac’s Bar, in High Street closed a fortnight ago.
However, Mr McGrogan said this was because of a ‘clerical glitch’ caused by a name change on the premise licence.
He said: “This, effectively, meant the licence had lapsed. We applied for a new licence last week, and there have been no objections, but that will take at least 28 days.
“But we have been granted a special events licence allowing us to open for just three days every week until we get the full licence again so from this week (September 23), and perhaps the next three weeks, we will be opening again just on our busiest days, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.”
Mr McGrogan said he was using the down time to press on with planned refurbishments to the 10-year-old social hub, which would be remodelled in a bid to attract an older, 30-plus clientele.
